Every year in Ukraine girls aged 15 to 18 commit more than 3 thousand abortions, and more than 200 abortions are commited by those who is under 14 years old.

Among young women from Okhtyrka the percentage of those having an abortion is 5% (and this is only the official statistics). How many women resort to clandestine abortions using medicines for abortion and "traditional methods" can not be counted. But all of these methods, along with medical abortion, are extremely hazardous, and may have irreversible consequences (both physical and psychological).

The problem of unwanted pregnancies dates back to ancient history. In all these years mankind has found many ways to plan your future family, so why in the twentieth century, do we still have such an issue? Perhaps because the subject is still considered uncomfortable to mention, it makes most girls shy and blush. Recently Okhtyrka’s youth, not afraid to talk about family planning and willing to answer any questions, was able to attend the event,.

April, 2  the Okhtyrka Center of Vocational Education  hosted the seminar-training "The future should  be planned" under the the subtitle  "Save a Life", conducted by NGO "Intelligence Sumy region" and Sumy State University within the framework of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) «Women's Health of Ukraine".

The main purpose of the event was providing the information and educating the  young people on the issues of family planning, reproductive health, on the questions of how to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, using modern and effective methods of contraception as an alternative to unintended pregnancy and abortion.

According to official statistics, every year about 300 thousand teenage girls come into their reproductive age, and one third of all Ukrainian teenagers (research HBSC) start having sexual life at the age of 14-15. Unfortunately, these young people do not have the necessary knowledge on how to protect themselves and their partners from the unwanted consequences.

Their friends and peers have the same level of knowledge, and therefore can not be good advisors on this issue; most of them are afraid to consult their parents or other trustworthy adults, and the information on the Internet seems contradictory.  Is there anyone they can consult and whom can they trust? This lack of knowledge leads to problems with the sexual life not only among the teenagers, but adults as well, and as a result it can cause the difficulties in personal relationships and health.

Modern methods of family planning could become the civilized alternative to unwanted pregnancies, which often lead to abortion. These methods of  planning are available for everyone, but too many myths and lack of knowledge about these opportunities makes young Ukrainians rather  to trust intuition, that can put in danger their reproductive health.

Therefore, the project team "Save Life" is actively working with youth. About 150 young citizens of Okhtyrka were discussing different ways of how to create a happy family with Andriana Kostenko, gender resource center coordinator of the Sumy State University. The meeting took place at the beginning of spring,  so called romantic time of year, when the flourishing nature outdoors awakes the feelings in young hearts and makes them look for their soulmates. It's nice that young men and women agreed on the point that family planning is an opportunity to make a responsible decision about giving birth to children, to find the possibility of loving and happy relationship with a partner, and that planning has three simple steps, that is to care, to learn more, and to be responsiable.

Another important point to remember is that the key thing to the harmonious life of a young family relies upon trusting each other, feeling that your plans and desires are considered with respect and appreciated.  It often happens, that  family relations topple during  the firest two years of marriage because man and woman forget to reach an agreement on the time and the circumstances of the having their children. Therefore, the host of the training advised simply not to forget to communicate with each other and to pay attention to the means and methods of contraception, that should be taken care of by both partners. One should not also ignore the fact that any decisions concerning health are better always to be discussed with the doctor.

Finally, the host of the training asked the audience to bear in mind, that children need to be born to a welcoming world and in the right time, and it’s better to take care of the contraception than to worry about the treatment.